Coal

Due to the closure of the "Zeche Prosper -Haniel" in Bottrop, the hard/black coal mining in Germany was discontinued on December 21st, 2018; the last piece of coal has been mined on this day.

Inspired by several activities around this topic I came up with the idea to create an illuminated headframe acrylic painting to - just a little bit - honor a very long tradition.

I've used:

• Canvas
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• Palette knife
• little decor stones
• Computer (Software: Tinkercad, ideaMaker)
• 3D Printer and Filament
• LED-Lights
• (rechargeable) Batteries
• Awl/Cutter

I've used a 24 cm x 30 cm canvas and acrylic paint (green, white, silver, black, red, orange).

I've painted the headframe in silver acrylic paint first and mixed white and green acrylic paint for the final color of the headframe. I gave it 24 hours to dry. Then I used masking tape to cover the shape of the headframe. At least I added the black, red and orange acrylic paint with a paintbrush.

After some time of drying I removed the masking tape with mixed results. I corrected the frame shape with more mixed white-green paint as good as possible. In the end it gave more brightness to it.

To represent the coal (Steinkohle), I painted small decor stones in semigloss black acrylic paint. The LEDs were painted in arcylic blue paint to kind of present the symbolic link to one of the main uses of coal/coke burned for heat: the production of steel.

I made a quick design in Tinkercad of a cable sheave (Seilscheibe) in the shape of a spokewheel in two sizes and four in number. They are

• sliced in ideaMaker,
• printed on the Ender 2,
• painted in mixed white-green paint,
• placed in the upper part of the headframe and
• fixed with book screws.

I've had this 40-lights-LEDs (thin wire) lying around and installed it on the canvas by making little holes with an awl and a cutter.

The battery-box was fixed on the backside of the canvas woodframe via neodym magnets (hot glued to the box and frame).

Beside the fact that the coal mining died a long death over the last circa 50 years, our area still is shaped by coal processing. There will be plenty of perpetual rework to do to prevent subsidence damage, flooding (some places are sagged up to 25 meters) and groundwater/drinkingwater intoxication.

The mining of coal was a tradition for centuries in Germany, especially in the main mining areas for example the Ruhrgebiet, lovingly named "Ruhrpott", where I live.

In my family my grandfather, father, some greatuncles and -cousins have been "Kumpels".

Glück Auf!